3 On Your Side: Self-Driving Cars Being Tested Now

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Cars that can drive themselves, it’s no longer the stuff of science fiction. More and more automakers are developing driver-less vehicles and as 3 On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan finds, the technology to put these cars on the market may be just a few years away.

Volvo showed off its self-driving concept car at the New York International Auto Show. The vehicle could be at dealerships in less than five years. Volvo is testing the cars on public roads in Sweden and several other companies are on a similar track.

Mercedes driver-less car navigates through the streets of Frankfurt, Germany and Nissan is testing the technology in Japan. GPS, cameras and a series of sensors give the cars a 360 view of the road, telling it when to brake, steer and accelerate.

Governments around the world are preparing for self-driving cars. The U.S. Department of Transportation wants automakers to equip vehicles with radio wave technology so cars can talk to one another.

But the technology works and several automakers plan to start selling the cars by 2020 or even earlier. In fact, almost every major automaker is working on some form of driver-less technology including Ford, GM and Toyota.

Google is also testing what are called “autonomous vehicles” in California too.